George Lucas Can’t Imagine ‘Indiana Jones’ Without Harrison Ford

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull has long been and gone, with most people’s attention now focussed solely on The Dark Knight breaking all box office records. But without the latest Batman, the fourth film in the Indiana Jones series would have undoubtedly been the biggest film of 2008.

This has obviously lead to speculation about a fifth film in the series, and with George Lucas’ track record of milking franchises for all their worth (see Star Wars: The Clone Wars for proof of this), I would say it’s highly likely to happen. But who would star? Surely Harrison Ford is getting a bit too long in the tooth to be hunting the world for a mysterious object?

Lucas indicated back in May that Shia LaBeouf could be being lined up to take over the lead role in any future Indy films. But he has now clarified what he said, and indicated that rather than being an Indiana Jones film, this would be a Mutt Williams spin-off instead. He told SFGate:

“[Harrison Ford] is Indiana Jones. If Indiana Jones wasn’t in it, you’d have to call it ‘Mutt Williams and the search for Elvis.’ … Yeah, it’s ‘Mutt Williams and the Search for Elvis.’”

“The franchise really depends on me coming up with a good idea. And that series is very research-intensive. So we’re doing research now to see if we can’t come up with another object for him to chase … hopefully we’ll come up with something.”

So it’s almost guaranteed that there’ll be a fifth film, and assuming he doesn’t break his hip or something, Harrison Ford is likely to star. Would Shia LaBeouf’s character actually be involved at all? I thought Mutt Williams was a great character addition to the latest film, but surely we can’t have two gallant adventurers in one franchise.

In which case, look out for Mutt Williams and the Search for Elvis, coming to a cinema near you soon.